Basket Flower, American Star Thistle, American Knapweed, Thornless Thistle (Cent

Basket Flower, American Star Thistle, American Knapweed, Thornless Thistle
Centaurea americana

Stalk and leaves

I have never seen such tall, bushy plants with such large blooms as I am seeing now. I guess the rain here has made them into super plants. The blooms are just now opening here.Are the ones growing there huge?

This was actually the first time I have had the opportunity to see these. They were located at Parkhill Prairie, which is county owned and Nature Conservancy managed, that I visited 2 weeks ago. It is a neat little place up here that is out in the middle of the country.

The basket flower were close to 3 feet tall and starting to bud. I got a picture of the bud also, but it's still in my queue. I would love to get out there again in a few weeks and see some in full bloom.

I got several interesting pictures out at this prairie and another in another county, that you would probably appreciate. If you have a minute, you might check them out. Not all have made it through the queue, but some of the unusual one's have.

Oh, I sure wish that you could see open blooms in person. They are all over the area here. I haven't seen any in massive grouups. The one near my house is going on 5 feet tall with lots of branching and blooms. It has only 2 blooms open right now. I want to take a photo of the whole plant, but the lack of sunlight is keeping me from doing so. It is all by itself in a field on a housing develop site. They have mowed the rest of the land 3 times already. I was able to save 4 types of plants by digging them up and I planted them where I could in my yard. I am glad that you posted a photo of the leaves and stem. I'll check out your other photos.

That's great that you were able to save them. It's so disappointing when I see all these beautiful flowers being mowed down or bulldozed. There was a great article in the Dallas Morning News recently about a group of people saving a bunch of flowers, including Penstemon cobea from site that was being developed. I wish I could have made it out there. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-transplants_28cco.ART.North.Edition1.43738c4.html

Thanks for the link to the article. I saved 6 Penstemmon cobea, about 8 Hill Country Rain Lilies (Zephyranthes drummondii) and 2 Blue Gilia (Gilia rigidula) from what used to be a country roadside. It is going to be widened and resurfaced because 2 hospitals are going to be built next to it. I need to make a new flowerbed so that I am able to save some more natives. I wish some sun would appear so I could take more photos of the plants that have come up due to the rains. Because of the severe drought of the past 3 years, many of the plants did not come up until this spring. The extreme cloudiness causes the colors of the plants not to come out accurately and I don't like manipulating the colors in my graphics program.

There were 2 areas near my home that had plants growing in them that normally grow in the higher elevation to my north and west. I used to love to visit these areas and attempt to document the plants that were there. I think that their ancesters must have arrived there over many, many years by seeds washing down during floods. The vegetation in these areas is now destroyed. I wish you could have seen me standing in front of the bulldozers blocking them as I tried to take photos of as many of the plants that I could. I know the guys must have thought that I was out of my mind. :o) Unfortunately, I was not aware that they were going to bulldoze the areas because I was recovering from open heart surgery and hadn't visited the areas for a while. I wished I could have saved some plants, but I was physically unable to do so. Needless to say, I cried as I watched them destroyed.

We have been blessed with cool weather and rain. It is a perfect time to try to save native plants which normally do not appreciate being transplanted from destruction.

I hope you guys get a break in the rain too. A little thin cloudiness is nice when you are taking pictures, but too much clouds and they just don't turn out right.

That's terrible about that one location. I can imagine I would want to cry too. After a prairie walk, my friend really wanted some Penstemon cobea for her garden. She confessed that she wanted to sneak out there and kidnap one of the plants on this protected prairie, but I told her I'd slap her hands if she did. :) I did show her the same article though, telling her this was her chance, because any that the group had not dug up were go to be destroyed anyway. She did not make it out there though. She does have some seeds that she is going to try to plant.

I hope she has good luck with the seeds. It is such a beautiful plant. Mine transplanted very well because I could dig up the root intact because the soil (mostly limestone based) was so wet.